CASE DETAILS:In a letter to the ICPAS, Mr. Grumpus indicated that Mr. Happy and his company billed excessively for work done for Company RED that was considered substandard because it contained errors in projected financial statements. Mr. Grumpus also claimed that the overly aggressive collections method that Mr. Happy used was of low professional conduct. Mr. Happy is a former employee of Mr. Grumpus and his company.

Mr. Happy responded via an interview with the ICPAS and indicated that the error in the projected financial statements was a failure to include the amount of interest expense in the determination of net income. Mr. Happy indicated that the mistake was in the software formula, causing the subtotal not to foot. Mr. Happy said that the error was immaterial. If materiality is based on projected revenue, the errors amounted to less than two percent for each of the three years in question. If it is based on percentage of error on net income, the errors amount to 40%, 15%, and 6% for the same years. Mr. Grumpus relied on the PPC Forecasts and Projections Guide in determining materiality issue. As stated in the PPC guide materiality could be as high as twice that used for the historical financial statements.

Mr. Happy also said that the projected financial statements were not relied upon and that the users were sophisticated financial professionals who caught the error and made manual and mental corrections to the statements. The error had no effect on the complainant’s analysis of the projected venture and did not affect their conclusions about not pursuing the venture. The ICPAS investigator contacted Company RED and discovered that had the numbers been correct, the merger would not have been completed anyway due to seller related issues. Mr. Happy said that an offer to reissue the financial statements was made and that Company RED declined. The ICPAS investigator told Mr. Happy that he should have notified Company RED in writing to state that the financial statements should be reissued.

The second issue concerning unpaid fees are being contested by Company RED as being too high due to excessive hours and credits that have not been applied as stated. Mr. Happy has not issued the billing credit on the advice of legal counsel. The interest charges per the respondent and the complainant have been eliminated from the statements submitted. The ethics committee feels that at this point, the fees should be settled between the parties and will not be an issue in the ethics investigation.

CONCLUSION:The case was closed with a determination that no violation of the Code of Professional Conduct occurred. In a letter to Mr. Happy, the committee suggested that as a protective measure, he should put in writing any offers to reissue financial reports should such circumstances arise in the future.

CORRECTIVE ACTION:None.

LESSONS LEARNED:While fee disputes are a common source of complaints to the Ethics Committee, they generally do not get involved in them. However in this case the Committee debated whether the work product was being relied on. The Committee determined that although the projection was materially flawed, the principle users had discovered the error and took the error into consideration during their negotiations. At this point, the projection was no longer being relied on.

If a document is in error and the accountant knows this, it is the accountant’s responsibility to take all efforts to make all users aware of this, typically through recalling a report and reissuing. However, if the report is not being relied on due to the "staleness" of the document, or the "special purpose" nature of the document having expired, there is no need to recall the report.

Special thanks to Dr. Howard A. Kanter of the DePaul University School of Accountancyand the ICPAS Ethics Committee for developing and maintaining the Ethics Case Studies.